Analysing all 11 own goals at Euro 2020: Five freakish efforts… but can we blame Guardiola for the rest?

When Simon Kjaer diverted Bukayo Saka’s cross into his own net during Denmark’s semi-final defeat by England, he helped the Euro 2020 collective extend an enviable record. Merit Demiral — Turkey v Italy, group stage Italy were purring from the early stages of this opening game, but had to rely on Merih Demiral getting in the way of a hammered Domenico Berardi ball across goal, which hit his stomach as he tried to divert the ball away from goal by jerking his torso like some sort of stilted attempt at body-popping, but alas it went in. Ruben Dias — Portugal v Germany, group stage Another volleyed low cross, another defender trying to get ahead of their attacker but only succeeding in doing the attacker’s job for him. Juraj Kucka — Slovakia v Spain, group stage Do you think Juraj Kucka could look you in the eye and swear that he wasn’t a little bit glad that Dubravka’s own goal had occurred in the same game, thus taking the heat off him a bit? Simon Kjaer — Denmark v England, semi-finals After a few weird ones, this almost felt reassuringly familiar, following a classic pattern: a low cross from wide, a defender under pressure from a forward who almost certainly would have scored anyway, that defender hoofing it into the net in a way that he almost couldn’t avoid.